First of all, thanks to the wonderful birthday girls for a delightful party last night!

Secondly...

Well, there was this overproof Jamaican rum at the party. It was quite yummy, although a bit sweet for my taste, and had a bit of a bite to it from the alcohol.

And a delightful gentleman of my acquaintance brought an entire plate of crystallized ginger that he made to the party, which was extremely yummy, and had a bit of a bite to it from the spiciness of the ginger.

And, well, as these things happen, I found myself next to the plate of crystallized ginger with a glass with a few thimblefuls of the rum, and I ate a piece of the ginger, chewing slowly to savor it. And then I had a sip of the rum.

plumtreeblossom said I looked like I was tripping. I don’t know exactly what was going on — clearly the spiciness of the ginger and the astringent effect of the alcohol were combining in a wonderful way, but it didn’t really make everything spicier, it just made everything that was there so much more intense. (And after the sweetness of the crystallized ginger the taste of the rum was perfect.)

Yeah, nice to see you across the room; wish we’d gotten to chat a bit.

I’m not sure the ginger would have the same effect in a drink unless it were extremely concentrated; I think I needed to just have chewed it to get the kind of effect I got. Also, having the crystallized ginger first affected the flavour of the rum by contrast. But I have a firm commitment to the scientific method and I am more than willing to be a guinea pig for that experiment.

(Chunks of ginger in rum would be another thing to try, so you can chew on the ginger while the rum is in your mouth. Also, taking dried ginger and re-‘hydrating’ it in rum.)

Well, sugar is known to bring out some tastes .... Don't have over-proof rum, but we have some, alongwith crystallized ginger. Will have to give that a try. Better than the gum commercial about "an explosion in your mouth."

We often make a drink called a Dark and Stormy which littleredhead introduced us to - get a good, strong ginger beer (not ginger ale, it's not gingery enough) and put a shot of dark rum in (or, you know, any kind). It is teh awesome.